Goffstown boys basketball clamps down on defense for come back win over Bishop Guertin (video)

NASHUA - Ryan Cowette knew the Goffstown High School boys basketball team couldn't count on Bishop Guertin to have a bad shooting night on Saturday.

Instead, the Grizzlies were going to have to force the Cardinals into it.

Down eight points at halftime, Goffstown clamped down defensively, forcing Bishop Guertin into bad shots while holding the Cardinals to just 11 points in the second half on the way to a 44-41 win in the Division I regular-season finale for both teams.

Aiden O'Connell had 15 points to lead the Grizzlies (15-3) while Mason Blondeau added 12 points and Rob Baguidy had seven. Peyton Strickland came off the bench to chip in six points as Goffstown will enter the playoffs with a top four seed, pending results from rescheduled games on Sunday.

"They’re a really good team," Cowette said. "I give our guys a lot of credit for the way they battled in the second half. Defensively, we were tremendous. We made a few small adjustments, recognizing who their guys were. We needed to be better about taking them away and making them more uncomfortable. But the defensive intensity was the biggest difference in the second half."

With no game scheduled last Wednesday, the Grizzlies were able to watch the Cardinals' home loss to Portsmouth and see how Bishop Guertin struggled shooting from the floor that night. Going into Saturday, Cowette stressed to his team that the Cardinals weren't likely to have that kind of shooting performance again.

"We talked before the game, just generally speaking, no team is every as good or as bad as their last game," the coach said. "I told our guys we were in trouble if we expected them to come out and not shoot well or not play well."

The Cardinals (13-5) came out firing, getting a big first-half performance from Luke Anderson and Tyler Mackey, who had 13 and 11 points respectively, as each hit three 3-pointers. But all but three of those points came in the first half.

"Defensively, we played well," Bishop Guertin coach John Fisher said. "I think we had better shot selection in the first half than the second half. Our shot selection should have been better. We’ve got to switch gears a little bit here. They are a fantastic team. I can’t take anything away from them. They’re just a good basketball team and we would have had to have played our best game to beat them."

Bishop Guertin opened the game with an 8-0 run, and although Goffstown was able to close the gap at points in the first half, the Cardinals carried that advantage into halftime. A 3 by Mackey with 1:42 left in the half gave Bishop Guertin its largest lead, 28-18, and it took a 30-22 lead into the break.

But it took the Cardinals almost a quarter to get on the board in the second half, getting a three-point play from Javari Ellison to go up 33-26. Goffstown outscored Bishop Guertin 9-1 over the rest of the quarter, taking a 35-34 lead on a last-second putback by Ryan Strand.

Mackey hit a 3 to open the fourth quarter to put the Cardinals back on top, but the lead didn't last long. O'Connell answered with a jumper and back-to-back layups by Strickland and Strand gave the Grizzlies a 41-37 lead and forced Fisher to used a timeout with 6:06 left.

"The ball didn’t start moving as early as it needed to for us," Cowette said of the offensive struggles. "We figured it out. Less one-on-one, less hero ball, and it made a difference."

Despite taking the lead, the Grizzlies weren't able to pull away. With 29.8 seconds left, Strickland made the first of two free throws to make it 44-39, but the Cardinals quickly got down the floor and got a basket from Bobby Canaway to make it a three-point game.

Goffstown got a breakaway on the inbounds pass, but Blondeau missed a layup and the Cardinals grabbed the rebound, taking a timeout with 8.3 seconds to go. Not wanting to give up a tying 3-pointer, Baguidy fouled Anderson before he could get a shot off.

But Anderson missed the front of the one-and-one, Strickland got the rebound and was fouled. He missed on the one-and-one at the other end and Bishop Guertin got the rebound, calling a timeout with three-tenths of a second left. Goffstown's defense didn't allow the Cardinals to get a shot off before the final buzzer to hang on for the win.

"We wanted to make sure we finished it, and it got a little harry down the stretch," Cowette said. "Going into the postseason with these types of games is going to help us."

While Goffstown will find out what seed it will be Sunday night, Bishop Guertin knows it will be the sixth seed. Both teams will host a first-round game on Wednesday.